THE IT HUB. BANGALORE.

A rikshaw on the metre in India - I must be dreaming. The biggest pan I've ever seen. Good morning Bangalore. I love watermelon street vendors - you da bomb. A Bangalore thali. A fire, at a national monument. Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace. A snap from the top floor - where were told off and told to get down. An artsy snap of Bangalore Fort. And a snap of the gates with my travel buddy for size reference. Spice! The corriander market under an overpass. More spice! A street. Making friends. And back on the train.

We only stayed overnight in Bangalore but in 24 hours we were able to have a wander around the city and discover what Bangalore has to offer. We arrived in the morning, and were leaving the next evening on a train to Hospet so it made sense to stay close to the train station - in the seedy backpacker hub on S C Road. Once we'd settled into the hotel we made a beeline for the nearest mall and rode the elevators straight up to the cinema. Although I consider myself a bit of a movie buff, I hardly ever go to the cinema (six times in three years and on most of those occasions I had free tickets) at home because it's just too expensive. It was nice to be able to afford to go to the cinema, and buy popcorn, and we did it as often as we could. Two tickets at a local cinema - the old theatre kind - are R120 (AUD 2.25) and tickets at a multiplex are R240 (AUD 4.50). Well, they're usually around those prices. The thing in India is that prices aren't consistent between towns, cities, and states. Two tickets in Chennai cost R240, and at the same cinema in Bangalore two tickets cost R540 (AUD 10.10). Still - a movie ticket for five bucks and popcorn for R50 (AUD 98c)!

The next morning we checked out of the hotel and took our bags to the bus station cloak room. It cost us R62 (AUD 1.16) to leave both of our bags there all day. Another thumbs up for India. We then set of for a long walk around Bangalore, stopping for a moment to relax (ha!) in the Botanic Gardens and at Tipu Sultans Summer Palace. We then wandered down to the remains of Bangalore Fort and under a bypass (where the was a spice and coriander market) to the city market where we walked through a flower market, past pyramids of coloured paint - for the upcoming holi festival - and spice, and the biggest pan in the world.

Tired and weary from walking all day we headed back to the bus station to grab our bags, and then plonked ourselves down in the train station to wait for our train to Hampi.

Rebecca.